WITNESSES TO THE WORLD

 

Revelation 11 presents two men who will be powerful witnesses to the world in the last days before Christ returns to earth to establish His Kingdom. 

There is an eschatological meaning. I believe that during the Great Tribulation—the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation period—these two prophets will arise to witness for truth against the Lie, incarnated as the Antichrist, (2 Thess. 2:9-12). While some see these as literally Moses and Elijah returned to earth, my understanding is that they are two prophets in the spirit of Moses and Elijah—as was John the Baptist, (Matt.11:7-15). Again, as I interpret Revelation, I believe the church has been raptured before seven years of tribulation—judgments on a Christ-rejecting world—yet, even so, God never leaves Himself without witnesses to the world.

Though there are others who interpret Revelation in other ways, what we ought to agree on is the practical message. These words had application for the first-century saints who received them and now twenty-first century servants who read them. All God’s people are to be witnesses to the world. In whatever age we live, there is the Gospel to proclaim. I want to focus on Revelation 11:4, where we see the Triune God involved in our mission and message. “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.“

First, consider THE INSPIRATION FOR OUR WITNESS, “These are the two olive trees…”. Their light shines because it is fed by the olive oil. In Scripture, the oil is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that it would be the Spirit who would inspire and empower His servants to witness to the world. To the teacher that stands in the Sunday School class tomorrow—you need to be filled with the Spirit. You may prepare a lesson, but you can only be prepared to present it, if the Teacher—God’s Holy Spirit—enables you. Preacher, will you be filled with the Spirit? You may put together a message, but as you stand behind that sacred desk to deliver it, there must be that Divine flow of Oil, as the Spirit equips you to proclaim it.

Second, note THE ILLUMINATION IN OUR WITNESS, “These are…the two lampstands…”. The light of our witness is about the Savior who declared Himself to be, “The Light of the World,” (John 9:5). As He now indwells us, we are to reflect His light, since the Lord has called us, “You are the light of the world,” (Matt. 5:14). As a disciple, I am to show Jesus in my life and share Jesus with my lips. This is our witness to the world. Christ is our model and our message. The old hymn by P. P. Bliss states it:

1 Brightly beams our Father’s mercy

From His lighthouse evermore;

But to us He gives the keeping

Of the lights along the shore.

Refrain:

Let the lower lights be burning!

Send a gleam across the wave!

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save.

2 Dark the night of sin has settled,

Loud the angry billows roar;

Eager eyes are watching, longing,

For the lights along the shore. [Refrain]

3 Trim your feeble lamp, my brother! 

Some poor seaman, tempest-tossed,

In the darkness may be lost. [Refrain]

Trying now to make the harbor,

Third, observe THE IMPLICATION OF OUR WITNESS, “These are…standing before the God of the earth.”  This implies that one day we will all stand in judgment before the Sovereign. His children will give an answer to the Father. He is keeping track of what we do and say. Are we faithful to His mission. The judgment for us is not to determine our entrance into heaven for that is settled when we receive Christ, but it will be about our enjoyment of heaven—the degree of reward we will receive there. 

The gravity of this for the lost, however, is the most severe implication. Judgment for them is to hear the decree of eternal fire and the degree of suffering based on how much light they had and evil they have done. This ought to motivate the believer’s witness to the world. It did Paul who said, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” (2 Cor. 5:10-11a).

GOD THE FATHER: The Life-giver of His Children

“You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John‬ ‭8:41-44‬)

Fathers are fathers because they produce children.  God gives spiritual life to all those who are His spiritual children.

There is the mistaken notion that everyone is a child of God.  In the limited sense of God being the Creator, and all humans being made in His image, that is so.  But, specifically, Jesus says here that not all have God as their spiritual father.  He says that the devil was the father of the Pharisees.

By virtue of our first physical birth we are sinners—lost and under the wrath of God.  Our spiritual daddy is the Devil—sinful and hellbound. What we must have is a second spiritual birth that makes us sons of God—saved and heavenbound.  We will abide at home with our father forever. Whose your daddy?

Have you had that new birth?  It comes as we turn from our sins and trust in the Savior. We respond to the gracious activity of God and the drawing of the Spirit.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
‭‭(John‬ ‭1:12-13‬)

God the Father is the life-giver of His children.

PREPARING FOR THE PROMISE

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication….  (Acts 1:14a)

Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus had spoken of the coming of the Holy Spirit as, “the Promise of the Father.”  (Acts 1:4-5)  The comprehensive promise of God is in the person of the Spirit—God with His people to indwell them and empower them (Acts 1:8).  The events described in Acts chapter one, portray a church preparing for the Promise.  In chapter two, God will send His mighty Wind from heaven.  They cannot make the Wind blow, but they can set their sails.  How can we, as the people of God today, prepare for the Promise of God to launch us into the deep waters of His mighty work?

There must be submission to God’s will (v.12).  Jesus had commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the Promise to be experienced, and this is what they did.  Fuller blessing calls for fuller submission, “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”  (Acts 5:32)  It is God who does the work, but He does not do it apart from us.  When I yield to Him, my life becomes a channel for the power to flow.

Preparing for the Promise also requires unity in God’s love (v.13-14a).  When there is strife and division, the gentle Dove of Peace—the Holy Spirit—takes flight and withdraws His favor.  No church can be mightily used of God without unity of purpose.  There is always potential for conflict in the church because we are made up of so many different personalities and preferences.  In that upper room, you had a boisterous leader named Peter, a quiet listener named John, a struggling pessimist named Thomas, a meticulous accountant named Matthew, and a patriotic zealot named Simon, for example—all so different, but united in love.  The church is Christ’s Body, with different parts by design, so that together we are healthy and strong to impact the world in a way we can never do when divided.

Prayer is another indispensable preparation for God’s Promise to be manifested (v.14).  Prayer must be our consistent pattern.  They “continued” for ten days in prayer, then preached for ten minutes and three thousand were converted!  We pray for ten minutes, preach for ten days, and if three are saved, we declare revival has come!  We can pray too little, but can never pray too much.  Prayer must be offered in faith.  They were seeking the Promise of the Father.  They believed He would come—He did!  What might happen if we would trust God more?  This prayer was a corporate offering—a harmony of voices lifted to God.  The Lord promises where there is agreement in request, there is assurance of response (Matt.18:18-20).

The final preparation was the disciples’ attentiveness to the Word of God (v.15-26).  They moved to replace Judas Iscariot with another Apostle.  Scripture was their motivation.  They positioned themselves to hear from God and responded in obedience and faith.  Matthias was raised up into a leadership position.  When the Scriptures speak, God speaks.  The church must listen to His voice if we would know His will.  Are we positioned to receive God’s power?  This is how the church can impact the world!

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

 

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.  (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Often verse nine is misapplied, taken from the context, and made to speak of the unimaginable marvels awaiting believers in Heaven.  That such future glory is beyond our finite capacity to comprehend is true, of course, and yet this is not what the passage is teaching.  As you examine it carefully, you discover that these are the deep things of God—buried treasure, if you will—that are in the Word of God and taught by the Spirit of God.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit called illumination.  It isn’t new truth, but it has a fresh and gripping reality to us as we study.  The light comes on!  Has that ever happened to you?  These are things that are written on the page, but our eyes had not seen them.  These are messages which had been unheard until the Apostles proclaimed them—now they can be known by us in this New Testament dispensation.  Imagine, that even men like Abraham and Moses—friends of God—did not know what we may know!  The Bible is God’s love letter to His Bride.  The truths it contains are for her eyes only.  While they may seem as nonsense to those who are blinded by sin, they are precious realities to those who have come to the Light.  Digest the Book, savor each morsel, meditate on the message—it is for you!

CONNECTED IN SERVICE: Unleashing God's Power for Service

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)

God never asks us to do something without equipping us for the task.  The work He has assigned to His church cannot be accomplished with human ingenuity and ability; it takes the power of Almighty God.  Yet, the corollary is that God does not do His work apart from us.  In His omniscience, He has chosen to make us channels of His omnipotence.  The very Spirit of God indwells His Body, the church, and we become Christ's hands and feet to the world.  When we share the Gospel, the Spirit calls sinners to Christ in transforming power.

The Spirit resides in every believer.  But, to be filled with the Spirit means more--it means He presides over us!  The command to refuse being filled with wine and instead receive the fullness of the Spirit are linked together for a reason.  This is not the first time that connection has been made.  When the Holy Spirit first invaded the church on the Day of  Pentecost, the believers were accused of being drunk.  A careful reading of Peter's response shows that he was not so much denying they were drunk, but that they were not drunk with wine--they were intoxicated with God!

When a person is drunk with wine, they have chosen to be under the control of alcohol.  It affects negatively everything about them--the way they think, how they see, how they talk, how they walk, and alters their very personality.  In a positive way, when we are filled with the Spirit, we have submitted to His control, and we think in a different way, see from another perspective, talk with a new vocabulary, walk in obedience to Christ, and lose our inhibitions in taking a bold stand for the Lord!

This is not meant to be a rare experience of an elite few Christians.  Being Spirit-filled is the normative standard for all God's people.  I  once heard that this is not so much a promise to claim as a command to keep!  If i disobey God and get drunk, it is sin.  If I am not filled with the Spirit, it is likewise sin--and will lead to more sin!  On the other hand, if the Spirit of Holiness fills me, sin has no room to operate.  We cannot be full of self and full of the Spirit.  Our passion should be that of John the Baptist who said of Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)

Apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with Him, we can do all things (Phil.4:13)!  Let us confess our sin and be cleansed, asking God to empty us of self and fill us with Himself.  Moment by moment, as we submit to the Lord, we can walk in the fullness of the Spirit and serve Christ with freedom and fruitfulness.  That is the connection that unleashes the power of God in my service.  What an impact we can have on our world, when a local church has Spirit-filled members connected with each other!  We can be like those in the first-century who, upside down" (Acts 17:6).  Really, it is putting it right-side up!  Isn't it about time?

CONNECTED THROUGH WORDS: Helpful Speech

 

 

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:29-30)

Our words should be honest.  But, they should also be helpful.  You can be brutally honest.  As a child I can remember having someone walk up to me and say, “You have big ears!”  They may be elephantine, but there is no value in sharing that assessment!  It is like the fellow who was asked by his wife, “Does this dress make me look fat?” who replied, “No, dear, it’s your hips that make you look that way.”  He then could see nothing because of his black and blue eyes, swollen shut from the punch she gave him!

We are to be honest—and helpful—in what we say.  Truth needs to be told, but we do not have to tell everything we know!  Someone may respond, “I’m transparent—I just say what I think!”  Perhaps you shouldn’t think things like that, when it comes to being demeaning about others.  If you allow that prickly attitude to be nurtured in the soil of your soul, then you aren’t likely to stick others with the thorns of hurtful talk.  The weeds of wicked words need to be uprooted at the source

Helpful speech is when GODLESS TALK IS SILENCED, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth” (Ephesians 4:29a).  Our hearts are corrupt—and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  That is where the corrupt language spews forth.  But, the child of God has a new heart—the Divine nature of Christ has been implanted by His indwelling Spirit.  The old, polluted fountain can be plugged by the Cross, and a fresh, flowing stream of life-giving waters can be spoken.  If the vileness of foul language is predominant, we should rightfully consider if the Cross has been applied!  Yet, even so, there is the possibility as long as we are in this world of sin, and inhabiting this body of death, that a trickle of corruption might leak out.  Beware lest a trickle become a torrent!  One of the first things I noticed about my new birth is that a new vocabulary developed.

Helpful speech is when GRACIOUS TALK IS SPOKEN, “what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”  In contrast to godless talk that is harmful, gracious talk is helpful.  It is not enough to silence evil words, we must speak good words.  Jesus Christ has put grace in our hearts, but we are not to be reservoirs—we are to be rivers.  My life is to be a channel of blessing, and my words are often the pipeline dispensing that grace to others.  Just moments ago, I e-mailed a missionary we support, living in a distant and dangerous place, a brief word of encouragement.  It may be the sip of refreshing water that enables him to press on in a dry and barren wilderness of the pagan place where he ministers.  Gracious words build up—that is the meaning of “edification.”  Someone you know needs building up today!

Helpful speech is when GRIEVOUS TALK IS SHUNNED, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”  (Ephesians 4:30)  There are numerous ways that we can grieve the Holy Spirit, but surely sinful speech is meant in this context.  He is the Spirit of Truth who comes to build up His church, so if we speak in ways that are dishonest and divisive, that grieves Him.  He is faithful to seal us as God’s children—and He will not abandon us.  When our speech repels others from the fellowship, how it wounds the Spirit!  God’s Spirit sees what even the struggling saint will become in the day of redemption, and assures him or her of the end result.  When I am too busy picking our failures and magnifying flaws in my fellow church members, can I not see how that breaks the Spirit’s heart?  He is not a hoot owl, or a shrieking war eagle, but the Dove of Peace.  Words that disturb the peace of the believer and beat the drums of war among the people of God are grievous to Him!  That ought to grieve us and drive us to our knees in repentance and then rise and run into the arms of each other in reconciliation.

I am taking the time to share these words because they are helpful!  But, the potential aid of these truths will only become powerful as they are applied.  My prayer is that I will be an example of this with my family and to my flock.  I desire that as I encounter the lost souls in my world today that my words would be winsome that I may win some.

Is that your prayer?

CONNECTED IN CHRIST: Our Common Architecture

 

“having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 2:20-22)

Paul has described Christ’s followers as saints who are set apart for Him, subjects who are citizens of God’s Kingdom, sons who are part of God’s family and now as sanctuaries who house God’s Spirit.

In each of these analogies, the connection with Christ results in a connection with each other.  There isn’t a special category for an elite group of Christians called, “saints,” but all of those who belong to Christ are saints.  A Kingdom isn’t composed of a single citizen, but all those bound together in allegiance to the King.  Nor are we an “only child” in God’s household, but there are many sons and daughters.  It’s a big family!

This devotional will focus on how the Sovereign Architect has laid Christ as the Cornerstone, and from Him established foundational truth from the apostles of the New Testament and prophets of the Old Testament to build His spiritual temple.  Every believer is cemented together by love in this marvelous construction filled with the Spirit and manifesting His glory.

Everything is bound to Christ—there is no church without that connection to Him as the Cornerstone.  The structure cannot stand without the solid foundation.  God’s inerrant, infallible and immutable message written by His inspired messengers give us the canon of Scripture—that is the measure by which we test and align all that are then built upon this foundation.  The foundation is unshakable.

We are “fitted together,” as individual stones with different shapes and sizes.  None of us are identical, but all are essential in the construction—formed precisely according to the Architect’s design.  The fit is unbreakable.

There is growth.  Paul says the church, “grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”  Spanning the centuries, bridging the continents and cementing the cultures, God’s intent is for an ever-increasing sanctuary.  There is always room for another stone to be added until God decides to cap it off at the consummation of the age.  Thus, we welcome into our local church all those who have been received into God’s church.  The frame is unmatchable.

Driving this home, we are, “built together.”  Not of bricks and mortar, but living beings who have each been recipients of grace and expressed a common faith in Christ.  No termite can devour it, no fire can consume it, no weapon can destroy it and no storm can collapse it.  The fortifying is indestructible.

The same Holy Spirit that indwells you inhabits me, and all believers have become the Temple of God.  We are connected in Christ!

THE HOLINESS OF THE KING

 

 

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.  And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”  (Luke 3:21-22) 

 

Jesus was, is and shall ever be utterly, inexpressibly holy.  No wonder then, that as John came to baptize Him, even so great a mortal as John the Baptist (Jesus said there had been none greater) balked at placing his hands on Him and immersing Him.  John was baptizing sinners—and Jesus did not belong to that crowd.  John himself said he wasn’t worthy to assume the position of the lowliest slave and stoop and loosen Christ’s sandal thongs, much less have Jesus submit to him in baptism!  Still, John listened and did as Christ required—and then he heard something else.

 

There is need to LISTEN!  Not only did John listen, but we need to do so as God speaks through this text.  To the voice of the Herald was added the Voice out of Heaven.  This is the Father’s affirmation of the absolute faithfulness of His Son.  For the eighteen years after the episode in the Temple, He has lived a spotless life.  Not once did Jesus as a boy fail to honor Joseph and Mary in their parental role.  Never did a lie slip from His lips as a teenager.  As a true man, reaching young adult life, He steadfastly refused to look at a woman with lust.  At age thirty, when John declares Him to be the Lamb of God, He is without spot or blemish, absolutely qualified to be the perfect fulfillment of what the Passover lamb pictured.

 

This makes it all the more remarkable that Jesus comes along with sinners to be baptized by John!  Imagine—in front of the lengthy line of baptismal candidates waiting their turn to step into the Jordan River, there may have been a remorseful prostitute in front of Him, and a repentant homosexual behind Him.  We know there were all manner of scoundrels there.  So, why was Jesus among them?

 

He was identifying with them—and that was His mission.   These were the very people He came to reach.  God did not leave us in our hopeless state, but He came to us!  In the act of baptism He was declaring His death, burial and resurrection.  This was a Gospel message, which is declared every time someone is baptized.  Being baptized was a step of obedience required—a positive act, and not only was Christ not guilty of a sin of commission (doing the wrong thing), He could not be accused of a sin of omission (failing to do the right thing).

 

Christ’s purity was ever reinforced by prayer.  We hear Him lifting up His voice in prayer as He is lifted up from the water.  Such intimacy with His Father was indispensable in maintaining His impeccable life.  How we who are so weak in comparison to Him can think we will stand strong until we kneel in weakness is beyond me.  It is foolish!  If I don’t win the battle in prayer, I am beaten before the Devil ever shows up—and he is coming to encounter us (Luke 4:1-13), lurking right around the corner.

 

His obedience and prayer brought down the anointing of the Spirit for His ministry.  The Dove descended from heaven and rested upon Him.  His life was continuously, conspicuously and comprehensively related to and reliant upon the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was conceived in holiness in the virgin’s womb by the Holy Spirit’s creative act.  Being always submissive to the Father’s will, there was never a time Jesus was not filled with the Holy Spirit.  Now, as He embarks on three and one-half years of ministry, the unction and anointing of the Spirit comes upon Him to enable Him to do the work.

 

I am called as a child of God to be holy for He is holy.  Followers of Christ need to emulate His actions.  Though I will not be sinless, I need to seek to sin less.  To submit to God’s will for me as Christ did in baptism, and publicly confess my allegiance to Him is the first step.  Then, I need to maintain close communion with God in prayer—daily and throughout the day.  The same Holy Spirit can fill me inside with His grace and come upon me in power for godly character and conduct if I will seek Him.  Thus, God can speak His benediction on my life as He did for His only Begotten Son!  Not to the same degree, of course, but any commendation from the Father is precious indeed.